Intro
Ollivier Dyens is an Associate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He is the founder and webmaster of Metal and Flesh (metalandflesh.com - not working as of 4/09) as well as Continent X (continentx.com, not working as of 4/09), websites dedicated to the study of cyberculture. He is the author of "Metal and Flesh, The Evolution of Man, Technology Takes Over", published by MIT Press whose French version (VLB Éditeur) was awarded Best Essay by the Société des Écrivains Canadiens. Among his other publications are Les murs des planètes, suivi de la cathédrale aveugle (VLB Éditeur), short listed for the Revue Estuaire/Terrasses St-Denis prize for Poetry, Continent X, Vertige du Nouvel Occident (VLB Éditeur), long listed for the prix Roberval, and The Profane Earth (Mansfield Press), long listed for the ReLit Award.
Interview
1. What drew you to work with new media tools in your work?
Digital media are a universal language. Once something is digitalized it becomes transparent, open to any transformations, transmutations and metamorphosis, open to any overlapping. This open-endedness offers a endless world of possibilities, for once digitalized anything can become an artwork, can be molded to one's desires and intentions, can be compel to obey one's imagination.
But even more than that, digital media, and 3d virtual worlds in particular, enable me to become both the creator of a world and the explorer of that world. When creating a 3d world, I take great pleasure in both seeing the world rise from its binary ashes and immersing myself into that world to discover new and strange lights, colours, forms and shapes. Creating a 3d digital world is like triggering life.
2. What resonates between text and a navigatable space?
3d creation and poetry are, in fact, quite similar. For what is 3d creation if not a virtual poem (with its own narrative, its own realm, its own coherence, often its own language)? And what is poetry if not, like a 3d world, an architecture of memory, a structure of sounds and images? A poem, like a 3d creation, is a world unto itself, one of almost unlimited scope. When one reads a poem, one literally goes through spaces of emotions. In fact, a successful poem is a virtual world in which one navigates. As is the case with poetry, the emotional texture of a 3d creation is shaped by how well one navigates the slivers of empty spaces positioned between representations. Poetry and virtual spaces are, in fact, quite close.
3. What artists have most influenced your work?
Poets like Merwin, Bukowski, Purdy, novelists such as Yourcenar, Cormac McCarthy, and William Gibson, digital artists such as Char Davies.
4. What earlier schools of art and literature most closely relate to elements of your work?
Hard to say. The romantics maybe? I know it sounds a little strange but my digital artwork is, I believe, based on very romantic notions of transcendence and the pursuit of beauty.
5. Are there elements of commentary on the interface between vr space and technology and human interaction and cybernetics in the work?
As any digital artist knows, the computer plays a tremendous part in the actual creation of the work of art. Though the artist suggest, the computer (the OS, the software, the interface, the hardware) actually decides what exactly (though its never exact changing as it does from one computer to another) will appear. VR is the same. The way one experiences the virtual world depends only in part on the artwork. The other part is the computer one uses. Thus, digital art is like land art, it moves and shifts with the surrounding environment.
6. The work is visually stunning as well as minimal, what subtext is drawn forth from this as opposed to a more dense or ornate space to interact with?
We now live in a world where too many memory tools remember too many things, where too much information is stored, accessible, archived, where nothing is ever loss, is ever forgotten. So much information is being made significant that our brains are unable to tell what is relevant from what isn't. As a consequence, memory shuts down, overwhelmed by information it cannot process, choking under the weight, and the lure, of information.
As a result, electronic artworks, be it of two or three dimensions must, as a first rule, isolate. How? By building virtual architectures open enough as to be filled with the user's emotional texture. By separating its narrative from the countless others found in the web. Electronic artworks must allow for a dialogue with the user, they must initiate the release of the user's memories and compel him into texturing the surrounding virtual space with his emotions.
3d creation then, must withhold information. Why? So that the user can input his own thoughts into the world. So that the user can easily select what he feels is important, what he considers will be emotionally fruitful. Electronic creation must produce spaces where one can project one's own emotional texture to the virtual environment, where one can stop and literally coerce space and time into unfolding into different shapes and geographies (the flattened effect of cyberspace is one caused, in part, by the speed at which we travel in it). By doing this, the artist provides areas where the brain can rest and process information out of which memory grows. By incorporating a certain amount of quiescence into their creation, electronic artists not only hold on to the user, but also acknowledge memory and territory. By allowing this, the artist provides areas where the brain can select and process information.
7. What schools of art are you most influenced by ?
Of course, there is no artist who is not influenced by certain art schools whether contemporary or historical. I do not feel influenced by any contemporary art school nowadays, because I am looking for the experiment, the unknown, the future, my future, not only in the contents, but basically also in the kind of representation, in any concern. Of course, there is no future without referring to Present and Past, but as I stated earlier already, my life experiences took the part of an influencing instance and the competence on many also not art related fields. When I studied art, the academy was rather old fashioned and the artistic concept behind hardly definable. The workshops, however, were excellent and represented good places for learning the craft. For a person like me who was always an individualist, this lack of conceptional substance was not bad at all, as I was forced to look for a place where I belong to in terms of art, elsewhere, inside of me. After a turbulent course of life, I am, since I started in 2000 working exclusively with New Media, for the first time in my professional life content with what I am doing, and what I am doing incorporates from my point of view wonderful perspectives in most different ways. Finally, I would not like to forget to mention, that ancient Greek philosophy which became in Renaissance times also the basis of humanism (I learned at the high school ancient languages) has generally a strong lasting influence on anything I am doing and particularly in art. One can see in that also the intellectual basis for the type of allegorical representaion, I am dealing with, like it is used in "En[code]ed". The humanist ideas and humanitarian contexts manifest themselves in really many art works and art related activities.
8. How do the different buttons conceptually interface with the navigation of the space and of the elements of the poem?
I wanted the 2d part of the work to be both simple and discrete; the animation straightforward and quiet for the poem is both very, very strong and very still and a complicated animation would have taken away from the actual work. But I still wanted to animate the original text for that is, I believe, part of the essence of digital media (its ability to transform anything into this very light, transparent and translucid binary phenomenon that one can manipulate at will), thus the difficult balance to find.
9. How did you select the text or was it the generator of the need for navigation?
The text was selected only on impulse. I have known this text for quite some time and always admired it for both its spacing, and the quiet emotions it was able to create. To me, the poem was like a quiet rain, a peaceful wind even though it talked of death and lost. From that impression of the poem, the virtual world was created. In fact, I wanted the virtual world not to be an interpretation of the poem but something like a realm that emerged from it. Colours, silences, shadows, the presence of both death and hope had to be present within the world as they are in the poem.
Digital media are a universal language. Once something is digitalized it becomes transparent, open to any transformations, transmutations and metamorphosis, open to any overlapping. This open-endedness offers a endless world of possibilities, for once digitalized anything can become an artwork, can be molded to one's desires and intentions, can be compel to obey one's imagination.
But even more than that, digital media, and 3d virtual worlds in particular, enable me to become both the creator of a world and the explorer of that world. When creating a 3d world, I take great pleasure in both seeing the world rise from its binary ashes and immersing myself into that world to discover new and strange lights, colours, forms and shapes. Creating a 3d digital world is like triggering life.
2. What resonates between text and a navigatable space?
3d creation and poetry are, in fact, quite similar. For what is 3d creation if not a virtual poem (with its own narrative, its own realm, its own coherence, often its own language)? And what is poetry if not, like a 3d world, an architecture of memory, a structure of sounds and images? A poem, like a 3d creation, is a world unto itself, one of almost unlimited scope. When one reads a poem, one literally goes through spaces of emotions. In fact, a successful poem is a virtual world in which one navigates. As is the case with poetry, the emotional texture of a 3d creation is shaped by how well one navigates the slivers of empty spaces positioned between representations. Poetry and virtual spaces are, in fact, quite close.
3. What artists have most influenced your work?
Poets like Merwin, Bukowski, Purdy, novelists such as Yourcenar, Cormac McCarthy, and William Gibson, digital artists such as Char Davies.
4. What earlier schools of art and literature most closely relate to elements of your work?
Hard to say. The romantics maybe? I know it sounds a little strange but my digital artwork is, I believe, based on very romantic notions of transcendence and the pursuit of beauty.
5. Are there elements of commentary on the interface between vr space and technology and human interaction and cybernetics in the work?
As any digital artist knows, the computer plays a tremendous part in the actual creation of the work of art. Though the artist suggest, the computer (the OS, the software, the interface, the hardware) actually decides what exactly (though its never exact changing as it does from one computer to another) will appear. VR is the same. The way one experiences the virtual world depends only in part on the artwork. The other part is the computer one uses. Thus, digital art is like land art, it moves and shifts with the surrounding environment.
6. The work is visually stunning as well as minimal, what subtext is drawn forth from this as opposed to a more dense or ornate space to interact with?
We now live in a world where too many memory tools remember too many things, where too much information is stored, accessible, archived, where nothing is ever loss, is ever forgotten. So much information is being made significant that our brains are unable to tell what is relevant from what isn't. As a consequence, memory shuts down, overwhelmed by information it cannot process, choking under the weight, and the lure, of information.
As a result, electronic artworks, be it of two or three dimensions must, as a first rule, isolate. How? By building virtual architectures open enough as to be filled with the user's emotional texture. By separating its narrative from the countless others found in the web. Electronic artworks must allow for a dialogue with the user, they must initiate the release of the user's memories and compel him into texturing the surrounding virtual space with his emotions.
3d creation then, must withhold information. Why? So that the user can input his own thoughts into the world. So that the user can easily select what he feels is important, what he considers will be emotionally fruitful. Electronic creation must produce spaces where one can project one's own emotional texture to the virtual environment, where one can stop and literally coerce space and time into unfolding into different shapes and geographies (the flattened effect of cyberspace is one caused, in part, by the speed at which we travel in it). By doing this, the artist provides areas where the brain can rest and process information out of which memory grows. By incorporating a certain amount of quiescence into their creation, electronic artists not only hold on to the user, but also acknowledge memory and territory. By allowing this, the artist provides areas where the brain can select and process information.
7. What schools of art are you most influenced by ?
Of course, there is no artist who is not influenced by certain art schools whether contemporary or historical. I do not feel influenced by any contemporary art school nowadays, because I am looking for the experiment, the unknown, the future, my future, not only in the contents, but basically also in the kind of representation, in any concern. Of course, there is no future without referring to Present and Past, but as I stated earlier already, my life experiences took the part of an influencing instance and the competence on many also not art related fields. When I studied art, the academy was rather old fashioned and the artistic concept behind hardly definable. The workshops, however, were excellent and represented good places for learning the craft. For a person like me who was always an individualist, this lack of conceptional substance was not bad at all, as I was forced to look for a place where I belong to in terms of art, elsewhere, inside of me. After a turbulent course of life, I am, since I started in 2000 working exclusively with New Media, for the first time in my professional life content with what I am doing, and what I am doing incorporates from my point of view wonderful perspectives in most different ways. Finally, I would not like to forget to mention, that ancient Greek philosophy which became in Renaissance times also the basis of humanism (I learned at the high school ancient languages) has generally a strong lasting influence on anything I am doing and particularly in art. One can see in that also the intellectual basis for the type of allegorical representaion, I am dealing with, like it is used in "En[code]ed". The humanist ideas and humanitarian contexts manifest themselves in really many art works and art related activities.
8. How do the different buttons conceptually interface with the navigation of the space and of the elements of the poem?
I wanted the 2d part of the work to be both simple and discrete; the animation straightforward and quiet for the poem is both very, very strong and very still and a complicated animation would have taken away from the actual work. But I still wanted to animate the original text for that is, I believe, part of the essence of digital media (its ability to transform anything into this very light, transparent and translucid binary phenomenon that one can manipulate at will), thus the difficult balance to find.
9. How did you select the text or was it the generator of the need for navigation?
The text was selected only on impulse. I have known this text for quite some time and always admired it for both its spacing, and the quiet emotions it was able to create. To me, the poem was like a quiet rain, a peaceful wind even though it talked of death and lost. From that impression of the poem, the virtual world was created. In fact, I wanted the virtual world not to be an interpretation of the poem but something like a realm that emerged from it. Colours, silences, shadows, the presence of both death and hope had to be present within the world as they are in the poem.
Project
The Morning Wind
synopsis:
3d virtual reality artwork based on a poem by Philippe Jaccottet.
Click here to view The Morning Wind
Please Note: "The Morning Wind" requires the Adobe Flash Player and the Cortona VRML plugin. Curator Note: Although Cortona offers a plugin for Macintosh we've been unable to get project working on our personal machines.
synopsis:
3d virtual reality artwork based on a poem by Philippe Jaccottet.
Click here to view The Morning Wind
Please Note: "The Morning Wind" requires the Adobe Flash Player and the Cortona VRML plugin. Curator Note: Although Cortona offers a plugin for Macintosh we've been unable to get project working on our personal machines.